Wednesday, 30 December 2015

Introduction

I had hoped to be able to play some games over the Christmas break, but I've been laid low with what I suspect is a sinus infection. Always these excuses, I know...

Anyway, I did manage 1 game of Frostgrave a few days ago with my 2 sons, J. and A. Here's the tale, for your delectation.

The Forces

A.'s warband, led by Malcolm Firestorm, the Elementalist. In our last game, he swept me from the field; this time his warband has even more newly-hired soldiers.

My squad, led by Mysterio the Soothsayer. One of my archers is being nursed back to health this week, but I've hired a barbarian called "Crom" to help fill out the ranks. Labelled "H." in the following pictures.

Newcomer Meyneth the Illusionist leads J.'s group. As well as a couple of halberdiers, he has a knight, a sword and dagger-armed treasure hunter, a mysterious, cowled apprentice and a thuggish halfling cook. Meyneth might look like a beautiful, young woman, but that's the thing about illusionists: you can never be sure that it's not just a facade.

The Game

We decided once again to play the "standard" Frostgrave scenario (look for something different in the next game I play!) Once the terrain was laid out, we placed what seemed like a great many treasure tokens and then chose our starting positions. I had the advantage of having cast a Reveal Secret spell before the game so I placed an extra treasure token near my position.

The first turn went predictably enough, with all 3 warbands advancing towards the nearest treasure tokens. My plan was the same as in the last game we played (here), so Mysterio cast a Wizard Eye on a suitable piece of wall deep in enemy territory.

Oddly, all 3 apprentice wizards fluffed their spell casting in the first turn and were hurt by backfires.

After that, things broke down into a series of small, localised actions. Here are some of the highlights:

Ellie, A.'s apprentice, got it together and turned one of J.'s soldiers to smoking cinders with a very powerful bolt.

The first ever wandering monster appeared in one of our games of Frostgrave. It was a weedy giant rat and was promptly splatted by A.'s knight.

A.'s thief ran through the woods to retrieve an isolated treasure token, but was torn apart by a couple of hungry wolves.

Meanwhile, Mysterio tried again and again to cast Blinding Light on A.'s warband, but failed every single time.

The apprentices on all 3 sides were having a mixed time; sometimes spells were cast successfully, but just as often they backfired and injured the caster.

Ellie casts another powerful bolt, badly injuring J.'s halfling thug.

Malcolm Firestorm, A.'s wizard, was having a ball. He summoned a demon (what, again? He did this in the last game we played, even though his chances were very low!), then used a scroll to slay one of the wolves. The other wolf then charged towards him, but was quickly dispatched by an archer.

My apprentice, Little Annie, finally cast Leap successfully and jumped over a stand of trees onto a treasure token. This was after several turns of failure when she fell flat on her face and hurt herself. Honestly, she'd have been better just walking there!

2 armoured skeletons appeared right in the middle of my table edge. OK, new plan: my soldiers will run screaming straight into the middle of A.'s squad. With luck, the undead monsters will follow me and make mincemeat of his guys. What could go wrong?

So, A.'s barbarian barely even broke off his fight with my tracker; he destroyed both of the skeletons that attacked him without a second thought. It turns out that they're not so tough after all...

On the positive side, my barbarian ("Crom") really doesn't like wizards. With one sweep of his huge, double-bladed axe, he felled the enemy wizard, apparently dead. You can never be sure with wizards, through.

A.'s archer promptly stuck a dagger in Crom's back and killed him, so it wasn't all good...

Meanwhile, on the far side of the table, J.'s soldiers were trying to make off with various treasures when A.'s knight, demon and halberdier interfered.

Just before he fled off the table, J.'s apprentice cast a successful Push on the demon and slammed it into a wall. However, A.'s knight promptly charged and slew J.'s treasure-laden soldier anyway, so it didn't really change anything.

Dismayed and outnumbered, J's remaining people fled deeper into the ruins. They were pursued enthusiastically and Meyneth the Illusionist fell to a halberd stroke.

The treasure hunter stood at bay and braced for the demon's attack. Cleverly, he sidestepped the foul creature's charge and sunk both his weapons into it, thus sending it back to its own plane of existence. However, his success was short-lived and he was soon surrounded and cut down by A.'s rampaging minions. Oh, well.

Conclusion

Once again, A.'s warband concentrated on fighting enemies, whilst J. and I tried to pick up treasure instead. Once again, our heavily-laden, widely-dispersed soldiers were slaughtered one at a time by A.'s larger, better-equipped group. Bother!

At least we saw some wandering monsters this time, even if they were relatively ineffective. I suppose they were a distraction for some people, if nothing else.

Magic is fickle! My wizard spent the entire game trying to cast spells from behind a nice, safe wall, using his Wizard Eye to see what was happening. He managed to cast just 1 Blinding Light, which was promptly shrugged off by the target, Ellie Icewater.

The apprentices were amusing, in a ham-fisted sort of way. Little Annie (my apprentice) repeatedly tried to Leap, but failed catastrophically several times in a row. She's now going to have to pick grit and leaves from her teeth, since she landed face down in the dirt so often.

Ellie (A.'s apprentice) stalked about the centre of the table summoning bolts of magical energy. Sometimes these would stick to her and burn her hand before she could let go, but on other occasions the bolts were thrown at enemies with considerable effect. We even invented a new song for her; it goes something like this: "Let it go, Let it go! Can't hold it back any more!" and so on...

Malcolm Firestorm (A'.s wizard) thought that a Strength spell would allow him to go toe-to-toe with my barbarian. How wrong was he!

So far, Santa hasn't done too badly, but what about 2015? Read on to find out what happened next.

The Forces

The Good Guys

My younger son (A.) was very keen to try his part-complete elf army, but he has only completed 12 points worth so far (a standard HotT army is 24AP). To handle this, we decided that these elves would be the cream of the cream, the bee's knees, the real deal, the very best warriors that elfdom has to offer!

To model this, we pulled in the a rule from DBMM (HotT's "sister" rules for ancient & medieval battles) and made the entire elf contingent superior quality. Roughly speaking, this means that if they lose in a shooting duel then their opponents take an additional -1 die modifier and if they tie in a melee then the elves get a last minute +1 modifier. This isn't earth-shattering, but could be helpful.

So:

Santa: 24AP of assorted troops led by an aerial hero general.

Elves: 12AP of superior spears, one superior bow and a superior hero general

The Baddies

The goblins are my prime "Christmas-spoiling" villains; they just can't wait to get their hands on all the presents and break them, drink all the booze and stuff their faces with rich food! This year, they would assault Santa's house with the following force:

Left flank: 22AP, made up from goblin hordes, 2 trolls, 1 bolt thrower and a warband general.

Right Flank: 22AP; goblin hordes, 2 trolls, some wolves and a warband general.

The Battle

Straight away, both sides charged, screaming, at each other (what, you expect subtlety in my household? We're dealing with teenage boys here...). The goblins were faster than the good guys and managed to grab both the hill on the left and the woods on the right.

First blood went to the goblin ballista, as it disintegrated a horde of snowmen (no, I've no idea how they did this. Perhaps they used a flaming bolt?).

To the right, the goblin attack was disrupted by massed gunfire from the elves (Santa's short, fat, jolly helper elves, that is. Not the tall, elegant, sophisticated beings of A.'s elf army).

The firing line was then extended by the elf bowmen (that's the tall, green-armoured elves joining the short, green-costumed elves); together they caused some serious hurt to the attacking goblin column.

Realising that the woods were full of dire wolves and worse, the elf hero stepped forward to face the enemy. He charged some of the wolves and put them to flight, but with an immovable troll behind them they had nowhere to go and were cut down.

The goblins charged forward to attack on the left flank. Fighting downhill should have given them some slight advantage against the ice bears, but they lost 4 of the 5 combats for all that (well, OK - the horde that was facing Santa was never going to win). Still, at least they had broken up the bears' formation; the impetuous beasts would have a hard time re-making it.

To add insult to injury, Santa's popgun blew away another goblin horde. This might be the very first time in history that the toy cannon has been effective; it's a momentous occasion!

Over the next few turns, the hill became a bloody, confused battleground. Angry bears pursued and slew some goblins, whilst hordes of the evil little creatures cut off and surrounded other bears. No quarter was asked or given.

Perhaps encouraged by the bears' continuing rampage, even the snowmen started to kill goblins (how do they do this, I wonder? Do snowmen smother their enemies or tear them apart? Or just freeze them?). The elf/elf firing squad continued its execution; this time they felled the right-wing goblin general and caused that entire command to become demoralised.

Suddenly, the entire goblin front line had virtually disintegrated. All that was left was a lone troll chasing the elf hero out from the woods.

With the goblin right wing fleeing for their lives, it was time for one last, desperate act. The left-flank goblin general ordered his trolls forward. The ice bears were distracted, trying to hunt down the last goblin horde, whilst Santa's snowmen were fixated on attacking the goblin bolt thrower. There was a small window of opportunity where Santa himself could be attacked and (perhaps) surrounded.

Chaaarge! OK, let's see: Santa is facing a behemoth and is flanked on both sides. In addition, he's pinned so that he cannot retreat and will be destroyed if he loses. Combat factors are as follows:

This is about as good as it gets for the goblins; all they need to do is win the modified dice roll and they have a +5 to +4 advantage in combat factors.

Of course, being bad guys, the goblins fluffed it and Santa drove the troll back...

Hearing the sounds of continuing battle, the elf hero stopped taunting the demoralised troll near the woods and came racing across the field. The goblin general saw him coming and turned to face; perhaps this would give the evil creature another chance to even the odds?

Now here's something we have never encountered in our games of Hordes of the Things before. Santa was engaged from the side by a troll, but wasn't facing an enemy to his front any more. Normally, he would just have turned to face this new threat. However, the rule states that to make such a turn, an element must have room for its base in the new orientation and must have space to recoil, even if such a recoil isn't a possible combat outcome.

There was room for Santa's sleigh to turn, but there wasn't any recoil room and so we ruled that he had to stay as he was. This gave the still-engaged troll a second opportunity to destroy Santa (who was still pinned in the flank and therefore couldn't retreat if beaten). Mind you, the troll's odds were lower now, though still plausible as a threat.

Even though he was being attacked from the side, Santa beat the troll off and sent it reeling - straight into the path of some enraged ice bears. They blocked the troll's retreat and tore it to shreds! Gah!

On the bright side for the goblins, the elf hero retreated from their chieftain and his bodyguard. The undisciplined warband gloated as they pursued the retreating elf - but it was a trap!

The elf hero turned at bay and hordes of snowmen closed in from all sides. The goblin general realised too late what a stupid, puny creature he was, trying to challenge the power of good. He perished and was buried under mounds of snow, never to be seen again. Game over, man!

Conclusion

This was another totally disastrous outing for the goblins; Santa (and allies) wins again! Total losses:

Good guys: 2 ice bears (the second was killed just off shot towards the end of the game). Oh, also a few snowmen hordes, but they were remade every time they were destroyed.

Goblins: pretty much everything. Technically, most of the trolls, 1 wolf, 1 warband and the bolt thrower weren't killed, but they ran away all the same. Some hordes were recycled, but not quickly enough; they fled as well.

The goblins were unable to get the trolls into action in good time and the elf/elf firing line completely prevented any serious advance on the right flank. The only bright(ish) spot was the confused melee on the hill, where the goblin hordes traded losses on almost even terms with the ice bears.

Oh well, I'll just have to stop trying to ruin Christmas and join in the festivities instead.

Sunday, 20 December 2015

Introduction

This'll just be a quick posting tonight. Partly that's because I spent some of today playing my annual Christmas-themed game with my sons. I've taken lots of pictures, but it will take some time to sort them all out and edit them into a coherent article. Expect to see that in a few days time.

There is another reason why I haven't made much figure-painting progress in the last few days. Read on and you'll find out why...

Melantia the Sorceress

I've just completed yet another old model, ready for Frostgrave. In this case, the figure is an old Brettonian sorceress from Games Workshop; one of at least 2 such pieces that are in my spares boxes. I've named her "Melantia", though this isn't written anywhere on the model and could be changed easily.

Now, this figure has a great deal of detail on it. This took quite a while to paint, but that's not really the issue. No, the real reason why the model has hampered my progress is the problem of interpretation of that detail.

Sometimes, we can see features on a model, but we aren't sure what they represent. At least, that's true for me! Is that dangling bit a tress of her hair, or is it a ribbon attached to her belt? She's resting her right hand on something, but what is it? A sword hilt? A potion bottle? What are the items attached to her staff? And so on.

It might seem obvious when looking at the painted example above, but the answers to questions such as these were anything but straightforward when I examined the bare metal model. Working out the answers (or at least, my answers) takes quite a while; I'm hesitant to put paint to figure in case I've got it wrong. I sit there forever trying to decide what to do without actually doing anything.

Wednesday, 16 December 2015

Introduction

I've always admired Bob Murch's Pulp Figures range of miniatures, but intercontinental postage has been too costly for me to allow any indulgence in them. However, a while ago North Star became UK distributors for the range and this has made them much more affordable in the UK. I've not invested heavily in Pulp models up till now, but I can see myself buying a whole load more some time soon.

Without further ado, here are some Nazis.

Stahl Mask

Stahl Mask is the only Pulp Figures miniature that I have completed so far; the rest of the "Doom Squad" pack are partly painted and waiting on my workbench. Right at the moment, that workbench is being monopolised by my son A., though. He's really caught the model-making bug recently and I can barely get near my own desk...

OK, so this guy will be the chief baddie in my Nazi band/league. The greatcoat, pistol and armband don't really mark him out as such, but the headgear suggests to me that he's someone important. I suppose he could be used as a league's enforcer/tough guy rather than the chief, but for now at least, he will be the boss in my group.

So, what's the mask about, then? I'm torn between it being a form of armour (providing some protection against bullets and fists so that he can be a recurring character), or a disguise to hide a massively disfigured face. Or maybe he's a well-known personality who doesn't want to be recognised as a Nazi. Or perhaps the mask is an alien artifact that provides him with extraordinary senses, yet cannot be removed. Or you could just make up your own story...

All my Nazis

OK, it's a small and somewhat eclectic mixture, but here are all my pulp Nazi models so far. The other 5 (apart from Stahl Mask) are from Artizan DesignsThrilling Tales range, which is also chock full of good figures. I've just about got enough here to put together a small league for the Pulp Alley rules, though I'd prefer to have more goons/followers. Better get painting, then...

Sunday, 13 December 2015

Introduction

One of the several monsters I bought recently was the "91008: Desert Thing" from Reaper Miniatures. As with my other purchases, this was made from their "Bones" polymer material, which makes it very cheap. It's a very unusual monster; it is clearly an ambush predator that relies on its prey approaching its (static) hiding position close enough that it can entrap them, a bit like a gigantic, land-based sea anemone on our own planet, or a smaller version of the Sarlacc from Star Wars!

Now there are many excellent versions of this model available to view on the Internet; many of them put my own painting to shame. However, I deliberately made this up in a quick and simple manner, partly to save myself time and partly to show that it doesn't have to be hard. For any reader who says "I couldn't do it as well as you", here is my recipe!

Preparation

91008 comes as an 8-piece model. That may sound like a lot, but it isn't really. There are 6 tentacles, an inner "mouth" and an outer "shell" part.

As sometimes happens with Bones, one part - the outer shell - was slightly distorted. I started by straightening this, using alternate immersions in hot water (to soften it) and cold water (to re-harden the reshaped piece).

Once the parts fitted together to my satisfaction, I glued the mouth and shell parts to a solid base (in this case, a perspex disk) and added some sand and grit around the outside.

Block Colours

So, simple painting. I painted the teeth with white, the tentacles in lichen grey and the rest of the creature in (Caucasian) flesh. The surrounding dirt was undercoated with a mid, yellowish brown.

First Wash

I had intended to detail this model with a single, simple wash; here's the result of the attempt. I used a slightly darker brown and made up a fairly thin solution to paint on. As you can see, the creature still looks very pink and this wasn't really the effect for which I was hoping.

Second Wash

To counteract the pinkness, I gave the piece a second wash. This time, I used the same colour for the wash as I used for the dirt's undercoat. I also made it into a thicker, more-heavily pigmented solution. The monster now blends in with its surroundings much better, though its teeth have lost some of their brightness.

Finishing touches

To finish, I drybrushed the dirt twice (pale tan, followed by antique white) and then added some static grass patches around the outside. The model was then varnished for protection. Job done!

Conclusion

This isn't the best version of this model that I've seen, but it will do just fine for my gaming sessions. It was a very quick and easy piece to build, as well as being fairly inexpensive.

I'm thinking that this might see initial deployment in a "Tarzan-based" game of Pulp Alley that I hope to play in the next month or so. It would make a very good "extremely perilous" terrain feature, perhaps on a jungle path. Of course, I could also use it in a desert setting, or an alien planet, or...

Addendum

After feedback - and my own reflections - I've touched up the beast's teeth in antique white. I hadn't intended for the second wash to colour them so much; this change restores the teeth to more of my original vision. Much better, I think!

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

Introduction

Another Wednesday and the sinking realisation that I've missed a weekend post yet again! Honestly, I think that twice weekly updates are too much for me, yet I've got so much that I want to show and discuss. Real Life (TM) just keeps getting in the way...

OK, a quick post for today. Here's another Reaper "Bones" monster, based up for Frostgrave. This one is strange for me because it's a pre-painted model; I usually like to paint figures for myself. Partly thats because I enjoy the model-making aspect of gaming and partly it's because I can usually make a better job of it than some hastily-coloured, factory-produced figure. However, this one came pre-painted and I decided that it was a decent enough colour scheme for my needs.

The Great Worm

So, what can I tell you about this creature? Well, it's a pre-painted Reaper Bones model of (I presume) a Dungeons and Dragons "Purple Worm" - one of the baddest boss monsters around! I've touched up the paint on the worm a little, especially around the teeth, but for the most part what you see is how it came out of the packet.

I created a base for this monster with a 70mm round blank, some Green Stuff and the Basius Dungeon pad. Once the worm was glued in place, I added a few paving slabs made from offcuts of thick plasticard to make it look as if the creature had burst through the floor. The effect looks a bit tame to me; perhaps I should have added more loose soil and other debris?

In Frostgrave, the worms were once bred to clean the sewers, but since the city's demise they have gone feral. They're now a considerable menace to anyone who is unlucky enough to encounter one, as Oscar the Thief is about to find out. I'm looking forward to seeing this creature appear in a game!

Wednesday, 2 December 2015

Introduction

In my last article (here), I mentioned that my son (A.) and I had played our first game of Frostgrave last weekend. After so much preparation over the past month and more, this was a momentous occasion and needs recognition as such! We both enjoyed the game, even with the very limited number of soldiers that I have prepared so far.

One thing stands out, though. Unlike many battle reports where there is a single main attack, or the action follows just one group of individuals, our game had lots of activity all over the board. This is going to require a bit of adaptation as my normal battle report format won't really do. Instead, I'll try to summarise some of the more significant skirmishes and leave the rest out. Otherwise, I think this article would become very long and tedious!

The Protagonists

Mysterio the Soothsayer

So, I chose to build my band around Mysterio, the soothsayer. To assist him, he has an apprentice called "Little Annie", plus a starting group of soldiers (archer, tracker, man-at-arms, infantryman, thug).

My plan: Mysterio will cast Wizard Eye as close to the opposition as possible then hide and use the eye to cast hindering spells at them. He and/or Little Annie will cast Discover Secret and Fool's Gold to increase the number of treasure markers; the soldiers will concentrate on collecting these rather than on fighting.

Malcolm Firestorm

My son chose an elementalist and is calling him "Malcolm Firestorm". He also has an apprentice: "Ellie Icewater", also known as the Ice Princess. Like me, his band is rounded out with 5 soldiers (thief, man-at-arms, infantryman, knight, archer).

His plan (as near as I can tell): advance and blow everything to bits with lightning bolts!

The Setting

On the outskirts of the abandoned city there once stood a sorcerer's mansion. It's ruined now, partly buried in snowdrifts and the forest is encroaching on the long-forgotten gardens and driveways. There should be much treasure to be found in and around the old walls (some of the treasure is even real!). It stands to reason, right? Sorcerers are rich old guys, so the owner of this mansion must have been wealthy...

Since we were playing our very first game, we decided not to play any special scenario, but rather to play a "standard" game.

Note that I succeeded in casting both my out-of-game spells and promptly ran out of treasure tokens! I needed one extra for the Secret I had discovered and another for the Fool's Gold illusion, but this was too much for my supply of markers. Consequently we had to revert to using an orange "stunned" marker as well.

The Action

In his very first turn, Firestorm summoned a demon. He did have to empower the spell to get a minor demon rather than an imp, but only with 1 point of blood. "Ah", I thought. "Can a level-0 wizard summon such a monster? I guess they can. Oh, sh*t!"

Not to be outdone, my wizard ordered the archer and the tracker forward. They both had unobstructed views of the enemy apprentice and both rolled high dice. With 2 arrows in her, Ellie Icewater was down and out of the game!

Following this, I cast a Wizard Eye onto one of the ruined walls, thus enabling me to keep tabs on the opposition even in their most likely hiding places. So far, so good.

There then followed a rush for treasure tokens. My men reached most of them ahead of the opposition, though my furthest advanced soldier was horribly exposed. 2 enemy soldiers attempted to tackle him but both were struck with Blinding Light spells cast via the Wizard Eye. For a while, they could only stagger about, completely disoriented. However, the enemy wizard and his knight were also approaching and there were just too many foes for Mysterio to blind them all...

At this point, I realised that my plan had a flaw. The rout began as my heavily-laden troops tried to haul off their treasure. First, his demon struck at my flank...

Little Annie managed to save my soldier in the centre with a cunning Leap spell, taking him well out of a losing combat with the enemy knight [you can do that - use Leap on a combatant, right?]. However, the enemy hordes were advancing fast now; they weren't encumbered with treasure!

My archer actually won a round of combat against the demon and staggered away, badly injured. It didn't do him much good, though - he was dropped by an enemy archer before he had gone far.

Meanwhile, the enemy wizard stormed forwards, throwing magic bolts at all and sundry - but missing with everything (OK, he did occasionally inflict a minor burn, but no real damage).

Another successful Leap helped my apprentice and wizard to leave before they were hurt too much, along with most of my few remaining henchmen.

My final soldier (the Tracker) was caught and felled by the demon, though to be honest he was probably doomed by this stage anyway - there were so many enemies around.

The Results

Casualties

Me/Mysterio: 1 archer and 1 tracker K.O.ed. The archer will miss the next game, but the tracker is fine, really.

Son/Firestorm: 1 apprentice K.O. She's not hurt, though and can take part in the next game.

Rewards

Me/Mysterio: 3 treasures, resolving to some gold, 2 grimoires (spell books) and a set of magic armour.

Oddly, we both received the same number of experience points (240) and so both wizards advance to level 2. I cast many more spells - after all, I had a working apprentice for all of the game - and gained points for that. However, A. clearly got more treasure and scored higher in that regard.

Conclusion

In a game with a high number of treasure tokens (due to my Reveal Secret and Fool's Gold, even though nobody was particularly fooled by the latter), the temptation was to grab as much as possible without regard to the enemy. However, I found that with the very limited number of soldiers (mostly because level-0 wizards cannot afford many, partly because of the mix of figures that I had available), that meant there was no-one left to protect my treasure-carriers. They couldn't move fast and weren't as good in a fight. At one point, my men were carrying 5 of the 7 treasure tokens available, but I couldn't hold on to all of them.

Disappointingly, no wandering monsters appeared during this game. All that work preparing a sizeable collection of models and they couldn't be bothered to show up!

Some big die rolls were made early on (shooting the apprentice, summoning the demon) and these had a considerable effect. However, magic is unreliable: Firestorm spent all of the game after his initial summoning success without achieving much. His profligate use of elemental bolts sure scared me, though!

So, what's next? Well, I think I need more soldiers, especially of the cheaper types (thug, thief...). It would be interesting to add some different players into the mix on occasions; this might well be possible over the upcoming holiday season. Finally, although the "standard" game is just fine, I would really like to play some of the scenarios as well; they all sound most interesting. Roll on the next expedition into the frozen city!